#if you vote/voted third party or plan not to vote you can just come out and say you don't care about lgbtq people or poc at all.

[minnesotangothic]

If you vote third party or don't vote at all, your activism is performative at best, and nonexistent at worst. Get off your moral high horse and begrudgingly vote for the "Lesser of Two Evils" instead of allowing all the rights of women, POC and LGBTQ people in America to be actively stripped away. If you don't believe they'll be stripped away, just read Project 2025. Yes, you can still protest and vote for more personal things, but you can only protest under Kamala Harris. Trump is going to make protesting outright illegal, taking away our first amendment freedom of speech. Would you rather have a presidency where making a change is somewhat possible, or a presidency where you're guaranteed death for trying?

If you see it as the trolley problem; would you rather have millions of LGBTQ children and young adults kill themselves across this incredibly large country, and not be able to do anything about it specifically because your actions/inactions caused their basic rights to be taken away and your right to protest taken away, or would you rather continue to see violence against Palestinians for a little while, but still be able to protest against it and fight like hell for the living?

In the trolley problem, you choose the second option if you want to take the moral high ground, or you're more of a murderer than the first option, and yes simply doing nothing is actively choosing the first option.

And guess what! EVERYONE can see if you vote. That information is public knowledge. They can't see who you voted for, but they can see if you did absolutely nothing.

[avelera]

PSA: You should question news articles that make you not want to vote

Hey Tumblr friends, but especially young Americans in this, the year of our Lord 2024.

Unfortunately, it is an election year.

Unfortunately, a US election year becomes everyone's problem, and yes everyone else, we are very very sorry that you have to deal with our nonsense.

But in all seriousness, the level of propaganda that's going to be flung around on all sides is going to reach peak levels this year for the English-speaking internet in particular. There's going to be a lot of influence operations, on all sides, and yes including on sides you agree with but they are still influence operations.

Source: I am speaking as a cybersecurity professional who also did a great deal of work in election security.

So, here's what I am going to ask you to do. What I am going to beg you to do: be careful of any article that makes you think there's no point in voting.

That's it. I'm not going to tell you who to vote for, or how to think, or that you should trust or distrust every article out there. I don't care about that. I care about whether or not it makes you think you shouldn't vote.

A lot of influence operations are about making you feel like there's no point. That both sides are just as bad as the other. The the election is falsified. That you can "protest" by not voting (false: you will simply not be counted and your voice will be ignored). All sorts of reasons not to vote.

No matter what you do, what you believe, or who you trust, you really really have to vote this year, and every year, and you need to not listen to articles that say there's no point because among those articles are in fact active foreign influence campaigns trying to promote one side or the other for their own reasons, I am deadly serious right now.

(More context, sources, and examples sources below the cut.)

In 2016, Russian influence operations were focused on tearing down Hillary in order to specifically depress voter turnout among young men of color in the belief that this would help Trump get elected.

From the article: "“Buried literally in the middle of the indictment is a paragraph that should jar every American committed to the long fight for voting rights,” Anders wrote in a statement. “The Russians allegedly masqueraded as African-American and American Muslim activists to urge minority voters to abstain from voting in the 2016 election or to vote for a third-party candidate.”

This is the flavor of influence campaign that has been proven, that does exist, and is the sort of thing that does numbers here on Tumblr.

Things like the situation in Gaza, for example, are incredibly fraught situations. Articles don't even need to lie about facts on the ground there to make people feel hopeless and angry. Again, I am not telling you who to trust or not trust when it comes to news sources. But if an article about this event, for examples, makes you think or even outright tells you, "There's no point to voting, both sides are awful, I just shouldn't bother." You need to pause and at least consider that this might be an influence operation. You need to think critically. You need to check sources. You need to think about the world you want to live in, to vote for, and who might not want that world to happen for any variety of reasons.

Protesting by failing to vote isn't a real thing.

Old politicians ignoring young voters because they famously do not bother to vote is absolutely 100% a real thing. It is why so many policies that are popular with young people are low priority for politicians: they are not afraid of losing the young vote because no one plans on having it in the first place when it's never there in big enough numbers to matter.

So please, please, read what you want. Believe what you want. Follow your heart and your brain and whatever other organ you want to think with. I'm not here to tell you who is right, wrong, trustworthy, good, or bad. I'm just here to tell you that despite all of that, whatever you read, you must vote in your elections, no matter where you are in the world and you must not listen to voices that tell you not to as a protest.

[bynux]

"don't vote for Harris or you're supporting genocide" "voting blue is still voting for fascists" Then what else do you expect us to do?

Here are some options y'all seem to insist on and why they're fucking stupid:

Vote Third Party :: Until we have ranked-choice voting (and probably even if we did have ranked-choice voting), it is practically impossible to make a 3rd-party candidate viable. There's not enough of the population that's far enough from moderate to give up their "safe" blue vote for some "revolutionary."

Don't Vote At All :: I'd prefer to pick my enemy. If I'm going to be working in spite of the government, or even against it in some ways, I'd rather the people I'm working against not already be targeting me for being queer, for example. If my options are "bad" or "much, much worse" I'm gonna pick "bad" and try to improve things from there.

Violent Revolution :: It's a cosplay power fantasy in the same vein as the Right-wingers looking for a reason to shoot protesters. Assuming you even have enough people organized and enough firepower to pull that off in the first place…have you prepared a plan to keep the innocents alive and safe? Are you sure you can keep supply chains for food and medicines intact? Are you sure there will be resources available for the disabled, the scared, the young and old, those who won't be able to fight and still need to be taken care of? Turns out revolution is ugly and causes a lot of undue collateral damage. Are the lives "saved" really going to outweigh those whose lives will be upended and destroyed? It's not like a newly-toppled, unorganized country will be able to do anything about Israel/Gaza, so you're just hurting and killing far more people than you're saving.

As for the power you do have to better things (and make Leftism more viable as a political stance in the US)?

Work at the level of your local government. If you're in a small enough town or neighborhood and think you have what it takes, run for local office. Be a local face of the left wing; you're far more likely to sway a small town to your views than the whole country, and each small town with a socialist-leaning government is a dot on the map for larger-scale viability, and you can help keep your community safe while trying to build up in scale.

Build community so we can keep each other safe if worse does come to worst. Push mutual aid initiatives, help at food banks, grow produce to donate to those in need, apply to work at your local free clinic, empower local businesses whenever possible so that if there is a socioeconomic collapse, you and those you love aren't left completely without resources.

Protest, and make it disruptive. You can be disruptive without being violent: graffiti, blocking roads, encampments, sit-ins, to name a few examples. Create inconveniences so it gets people's attention whether they like it or not.

Above all, FUCKING VOTE BLUE. You're choosing your enemy. You get to help decide if the government we're working in spite of is run by milquetoast neoliberal war hawks who do, on some rare occasions, actually make things marginally better…or full-tilt Christo-fascists who want to kill some of us for kissing people with the same genitals as us. There aren't any other options that are going to be picked. It sucks, but at the bare minimum we can pick the option that isn't going to actively murder us while we try to build up viability for a candidate who won't sell out brown people to an ethnostate.

If you aren't doing at least one of the things above, then don't lecture me about how I keep myself and my community safe. I'd love to see a United States (or some future iteration of it) that acknowledges the sovereign rights of indigenous peoples, that doesn't fund genocide, that provides healthcare as a basic human right, that doesn't meddle in every other country's business. But if we are to see that, let alone help that happen, we need to survive this next presidential administration.

Edit: y'all have lost reblog privileges. If you wanna screenshot this and have stupid unnuanced opinions OFF of my post, be my guest. Just leave me tf alone.

[c-rowlesdraws]

(Note: I’m writing this in good faith and not trying to come across confrontational)

Have u forgotten u can vote 3rd party? I know there will likely not be enough people voting independant party for a non red or blue president to be elected THIS voting cycle. But. If enough people vote independent maybe america will wake up and realize there are more than 2 shitty options. (It takes time to change, and change for the better)

Look the problem with the blue no matter who mindset is that these people know you are going to vote for them no matter what. Not because you necessarily like them but because at least they aren’t the other guy. Which gives dems absolutely no incentive to not be a piece of shit. Like do you get it? They will be awful and endorse genocides and all other terror because they know you will let them get away with it. Maybe biden isn’t as bad as a republican would have been but he is still pretty fucking bad. Personally, morally, I cannot in any way justify voting for him again.

voting for someone as damage control in an election does not mean you can't heckle the shit out of them once they are in office. You elect the officials you think you and groups you belong to have the better chance of pressuring into better policies, and who will do the least amount of damage in the meantime.

Democrats are relentless towards their elected officials-- at least the ones I know who are actually politically active are. They call, they protest, they campaign. Plus, as you're demonstrating, people on the left do not blindly vote (that's the other guys). It's totally unrealistic to say that elected Democratic officials just think they have an easy ride.

people can and should vote for whoever they want to in local elections, primaries, etc. But in the big one, the president one, the one in the fall, voting third party is like drawing up plans for a nice new extension on a house that is actively being set on fire. Voting for president is damage control. Voting is your hard-fucking-won civil right. Voting in smaller elections can also be damage control; when there is no-one to feel "good" about voting for, you vote for the less-worse one, because maybe that one is more receptive to the idea of climate change being real than the other one, and you can work with that.

Sometimes you get to vote for the option you align with the most. But sometimes voting is about picking the option with the cracks that you can dig your fingers into and pull open. Or at least the one who won't start taking a sledgehammer to civil rights and environmental protections (and, and) with all his buddies while you work to build support behind a candidate you can feel good about voting for in four years.

Biden has shown he can change his policies over time, with pressure. Democrats can be swayed in ways Republicans cannot. One major party can be pushed more left. The other one will drag us into a darkness that I don't even want to think about. The presidency is about so much more than just the individual sitting in the Oval Office.

Voting is strategic. It is strategic. It is not negative moral karma to vote strategically. It is one action amidst all the other actions you can take to fight for the future you want.

[milf--adjacent]

serious voting question: I'm an ml and generally I don't vote. can I ask what your reasoning is for voting third party? I'm curious to round out my opinion a little better

Seeing just how many people voted socialist back in the 19-teens was an inspiration to me as a baby leftist growing up in a deep red state. Even if they didn't win, I saw that I wasn't alone like I felt I was, that even the 'stupid' people of the past had some sense in their heads and supported policy and politics we still need even today. So no. 1 it's for the baby leftists to come who will feel trapped and alone and need a tangible connection to their beliefs: The number of people who simply didn't vote doesn't show up in textbooks, but minor party votes do.

Second: the democratic campaigning apparatus only serves to seperate those willing to organize from meaningful organization. By convincing people to put that same energy into the third party of their choice, we have countered at least a little of the Democrat's anti-revolutionary strategy. If you can convince a progressive to actually act and vote like a progressive, that's someone who might actually help when you need to set up a soup kitchen or protest in the future.

Thirdly: Many of these "I'm gonna vote anyway so I might as well vote blue" folks have never engaged in organizing. Getting involved with 3rd parties puts them in touch with others who are of a similar political slant, the first (and often most difficult) step in organizing. At least with the Greens in most places, they actively ask for help of all sorts, giving people experience in organizing they can build on as they become more politically involved. More people who know how to organize is never a bad thing.

Fourthly: If a third party can get just 5% of the national vote in an election, they are entitled to national campaign funding and a space in the official debates in the coming election. This would be a much needed shift in American politics. Democrats sound much more like republicans than leftists, and that's part of why they never get involved in the free and equal debates: the democrats are to the right of the fucking libertarians on a number of policies.

Finally: if a 3rd party candidate did win the presidency, a lot of the good things the democrats have held over our heads like bait for decades would get done, and people would have more time and energy to commit to political actions. I support 3rd party politics because at the very least it shakes things up a little. The status quo is what's killing us and any effort to change that disorganizes and spreads our true enemies thinner. Center-left socialism will not save us, but it will at least address the social ills of our society in a helpful way and attempt to tackle crisies like climate change, policing, and ending foreign policy fiascos via slashing the bloated military budget (even the fucking libertarians are running on that).

The general population of the US will refuse to even consider actual leftist politics without some sort of shift in our electoral politics. Instead of apathy and middle-finger-hoisting inaction, I chose an action with lasting strategic value. If we want a real "the revolution will not be televised" moment, we have to slap the soma of blue-tie lies out of enough hands to get people to pay attention. 3rd party electoralism is a step in the correct direction for them and a path I have started many people down already. I plan to continue until there is no need for it.

[multiplicity-positivity]

Resolving In-System Conflict

Internal fights, disagreements, indescisuon, and other conflict can make life challenging for any system. It’s not always easy learning to cooperate and get along with other folks sharing your body and mind! While our own system still struggles a lot with internal conflict, we thought it would be good to make a post detailing how we handle conflict and strife within our own collective. Without further ado, let’s get started!

Disclaimer: what works for our system may not work for yours! Every system is different, so you are encouraged to heed the advice that will be beneficial for your system and not worry about the rest. You know yourself and your own system better than we ever could, so personal discretion is always encouraged!

Internal Meetings

One way we try to resolve conflict before it gets out of hand is by having regular in-system meetings. Our own system tries to organize a meeting once every month or so. These gatherings allow us to fill out a roster of our members, note any significant changes, vote on or discuss any upcoming decisions, air out grievances, and in general just socialize with each other a little bit.

If there’s interest, we can make a new post going into more detail on what organizing and executing an in-system meeting looks like for us!

Brainstorm and Collaborate

When different members want different things, or when certain headmates can’t seem to agree on something, it may be a good idea for the whole system to try and come up with a unique solution that works for everyone. This may not involve any sort of compromise, and you may find it possible to collectively reach decisions that will work for your whole system!

These sorts of conclusions won’t be reached if your system members won’t ever talk to each other or pitch ideas back and forth, so it’s a good idea to practice communicating even when you’re not in conflict to make these moments of collaboration easier for everyone!

Honoring Previous Commitments

Sometimes solving a conflict or disagreement is as easy as honoring whoever had a prior commitment or had said they wanted to do something first. This isn’t always going to be a possible solution, but it’s a good idea to honor these commitments whenever possible!

Getting a Second (or Third!) Opinion

When two headmates butt heads a lot, it may take getting some input from an outside party in order for an amicable solution to be reached. This can be from another headmate or a trusted loved one outside your system!

Getting Space

For headmates who genuinely fight a lot, have a lot of spite or hatred for each other, or generally cannot ever get along, it may be best to try and help these members get a bit of space away from each other for a while. If your system has a manager or gatekeeper, it could be worth it to try and set up a fronting schedule so they don’t always have to interact with each other. Getting space doesn’t mean that they’ll never be able to make amends and grow closer in the future! But sometimes what needs to happen in the moment is simply allowing these headmates to have some time apart.

Making Compromises

We believe that this is the most important way to start finding common ground and easing tensions within a system. It’s impossible for everyone to always get what they want, but that doesn’t mean compromises can’t sometimes be made! Whenever possible, we’d encourage your system members to meet conflicts, disagreements, and arguments with the potential for compromise.

Compromising means some headmates may have to make concessions in order for everyone to be happy. It may involve changing plans or readjusting expectations. Flexibility and a willingness to work together will undoubtedly help your whole system find solutions to your disagreements that benefit everyone.

A perfect compromise to a situation might not come easily! And there may not be a good compromise where everyone gets what they want in every instance. If your system makes a compromise that one headmate does not agree with, you can do things like explaining your reasoning to this headmate and keeping them in mind for future decisions so that they don’t feel unheard or left out.

Conclusion

Dealing with in-system conflict can regularly be a difficult challenge. It’s not always easy to find common ground with headmates or come to terms with sharing a body, mind, time, and resources with the rest of your system members. Your system may find your own ways of managing conflict and disagreements which we haven’t mentioned here, and that’s okay!

In all this, remember that learning how to effectively get along will be a process that takes time and effort. It’s normal and understandable for a system to struggle much more with conflict early on, but we firmly believe that things can improve for any system with patience and practice.

Beneath the cut we have a few examples from our own system on how we use these methods to ease tensions and get along with each other a bit better. If you’ve made it this far, thanks so much for reading! And good luck with learning how to get along better with your system in the future.

Brainstorming Example:

Kip wants to go to our town’s art museum, but Alucard wants to hang out at the mall. We don’t have enough energy to do both… So we collaborate to come up with a unique solution. We decide to instead go swimming at the lake - an activity that both parts enjoy which also allows our littles to cofront to play and splash around.

Prior Commitment Example:

Cecil wants to go to the library on a day when Parker had already committed to helping our friends move. Since Parker had already made plans before Cecil decided to go to the library, we’ll postpone our library trip so we can honor our previous commitment.

Getting a Second Opinion Example (Piercing mention):

Alucard wants a nose piercing, but Toby does not want any holes in the body. They brought this disagreement to the system meeting, where Kiki and Ghost helped decide that we should hold off on getting a piercing for a while and see how everyone feels this time next year.

Getting Space Example:

Nameless and Parker have major political disagreements which cause them to often have heated, painful arguments. At this point, it is easier to try and keep them separated than it would be to force them to spend time with each other when they’d rather do literally anything else.

Compromise Examples:

Ghost and Benji want to spend our afternoon in different ways. They agree to compromise by setting an hour timer so they both can do the activities they were looking forward to.

Cherry wants to play pretend in the yard, but Alucard is cofronting and doesn’t want to go outside. They compromise by playing pretend inside and building a pillow fort.

Basil wants to become a better writer, but Kip thinks we should be spending creative time working on art. They decide to work together by making a comic which involves both art and writing.

[rongzhi]

genuine question, what other option is there other than to vote harris? because third party votes aren’t going to be able to overtake both democrat and republicans out of nowhere and the only other person to vote for is trump, who wants to completely dismantle democracy

I feel like I’ve seen this question get asked all over the place and there is no good answer to satisfy the person asking, because when you say “What other option is there” and then immediately discount the idea of third party voting, then you’ve already made it clear that all your faith is in the popular vote to prevent Trump from attaining office again, which is all that matters to you, presumably.

And before the accusations fly from anyone else, obviously no, I don’t want Trump in office any more than the next guy, however I do not think he will dismantle democracy even if he was because he would be incapable. The idea of project 2025 and Trump as some ultimate ender of democracy is ridiculous if you beat down the hysteria for long enough to think about: first, project 2025 is nothing new, just everything the likes of the Heritage Foundation and conservative lawmakers have already been pushing for years (ie turning the U.S into a Christian theocracy more or less), written out in a way to get liberals dizzy with fear. It is alarming but no more alarming than the slow slide in this direction that I personally think we have already been taking for several decades. And it is insane. People can see that it is insane and extremist and as much as people who are terminally online like to wring their hands about it, I think that the average voter that we don’t hear from is going to be put off by it. It is offputting to liberals/Democrats obviously, it is offputting to centrists, and it is offputting to many moderate conservatives/(mainstream) Republicans. It is fringe and unpopular enough that even Trump himself doesn’t want to be directly tied to the whole thing. Like, I feel like people are not grasping just how fringe true MAGA and extremist Christian Nationalists are in the broad scheme of things. I think the cable news is getting a lot of mileage out of the current election cycle in their usual gleeful way, but for all the 24 hour coverage and charts and panels and panic, I don’t think Trump is going to win. Of course, feel free to come back in a couple months and wag a finger at me if that turns out not to be true.

Either way, by asking “what other option is there?”, I feel you overestimate the power of your individual vote. You are not voting for the president anyway. You are voting for electoral delegates, and to put it broadly, those guys don’t have to listen to you. Or have we all just forgotten about that too?

And I’m not saying “don’t vote”, either. I just think you should be voting for something and not against something else, and I don’t subscribe to the way of thinking that a third party vote is somehow less of a vote (see previous paragraph for the irony). I think voting has its uses, especially in local elections where council members, etc, have the power to more directly effect your life. As to the matter of Harris, look, as I said, if you’re already planning to vote Democrat, I’m not going to persuade you to not do so—I can understand people feeling the need to do so, especially if they live in a swing state, and that’s their prerogative. Of course, I think that should also be done recognising what that means in terms of what foreign policy decisions you are voting for when voting for Harris. And that being the case, I think Harris voters have no ground to turn around votescold (not saying you are doing that, anon, but simply speaking to the broader trend I’ve seen online over the past months), especially toward any single-issue voters voting third party or abstaining over the very serious single issue of supporting genocide. Me personally, I voted uncommitted in the primaries and will likely vote for Jill Stein or Claudia de la Cruz, depending on who gets ballot access in my state, as Cornel West didn't get ballot access.

So, those are my approximate thoughts on the matter and sorry for any typos or unclear thoughts. Probably forgot to say some things, but I don’t think I’m saying anything new, either, and I will not be answering any additional asks about voting or the U.S elections, including the ones that have come in after this one, as it’s not really my wheelhouse. There's been enough discourse on the matter that I feel like at this point, you should know what you're going to do one way or the other.

EDIT: bolded a few areas that some of you could afford to reread!

[thisapplepielife]

Written for the @steddieholidaydrabbles December challenge.

Dirty Thirty

Prompt Day 24: Birthday | Word Count: 1000 | Rating: T | CW: Childhood Trauma, Language | Tags: Established Relationship, Future Fic, Steve & Gareth, Eddie Turns 30, Birthday Blues, Hurt/Comfort, Steve POV

"It's his dirty thirty," Steve says, tucking the phone between his shoulder and his ear, "We have to do something."

Gareth laughs through the receiver.

"Well, you can dig your own grave if you want to, but I'm definitely not crawling in it with you," Gareth says, and Steve squeezes his eyes shut. 

Eddie usually loves his birthday, but several weeks ago the decree came down that he wanted nothing for his birthday. He wanted to pretend it didn't exist. But is Steve really supposed to do nothing to celebrate Eddie's thirtieth birthday? That's a milestone. 

Eddie almost didn't make it to twenty-one. But he did, and that birthday party was so fucking wild that Steve still doesn't remember everything that happened. All he knows is he woke up with a tattoo on his arm that looks suspiciously like Eddie's handiwork, though Eddie still denies it. 

So, Eddie turning thirty should be celebrated. Maybe not a kegger that ends in beloved, if unplanned, tattoos. But still. Something special. 

"What if-" 

"No," Gareth says, "whatever you're thinking. No." 

Steve sighs, in disappointment. 

Gareth's right, is the thing. Eddie isn't one to say he doesn't want something, but secretly does. He said he didn't want anything, so he really doesn't want anything this year.

Steve knows Eddie isn't the type to dwell on getting older. He usually loves that shit. Loves that he lived, and has kept on living. So, this is out of character, and hard for Steve to swallow.

"I know," Steve finally says, "you're right." 

"What was that? Say it again, a little louder. You know my hearing is shitty from years of drumming."

Steve laughs, "Gareth, you're right. Even if I loathe to admit it." 

Gareth cackles, but then turns serious.

"I know you mean well, Steve-o. But let's just do what he wants, okay? Not what we want. Of course, I'll want you to throw me a huge dirty thirty. Strippers coming out of the cake, the whole nine yards," Gareth says. 

"I think your wife might have something to say about that," Steve says, dryly. 

Gareth just laughs. 

Steve finally relents, "Okay, I won't plan anything." 

"Smart man," Gareth says, and hangs up the phone. 

Gareth is Eddie's best friend, but maybe Steve should float this situation past Jeff and Goodie, too. Just in case. Get a second and third opinion. Gareth isn't the be-all and end-all. 

So, Steve gives them each a call.

Jeff is kind, but firm, with his hard no vote. 

Goodie is a hard yes, but it's a trap, and Steve knows better than to fall for it. 

It doesn't take long for Gareth to call back. 

"Steven." 

Steve hangs his head, "I just had to ask them, okay?!" 

"No means no!" Gareth shouts.

"I won't do shit, I promise," Steve says. 

"You better not," Gareth says, and hangs up on him for the second time today.

And Steve doesn't plan anything. 

Eddie turns thirty, and nothing happens. Steve hates it. 

He takes Eddie out to eat, but Eddie wouldn't even pick somewhere nice. No, he just wanted to grab food from the taco truck that always sits in the parking lot of the hardware store.

So, they eat messy tacos, standing up, outdoors, in January, while people carry lumber to their waiting trucks. 

Eddie never mentions it's his birthday, and nobody else does either. 

It's weird. 

That night they lay in bed, and Steve feels like he's missed something big here. It's a gnawing sensation in his gut, and he hates it. Eddie doesn't even seem in the mood for birthday sex. Not that he needs a reason to get Steve into bed, but he usually likes to pretend it's a special gift, just for him, and Steve always goes along with it. 

Not tonight.

Tonight, they lay in the quiet, and Steve feels like this whole day, this whole week, has been off. He's running through every damn thing that could have led up to this, when Eddie finally speaks.

"I'm older than my mom ever was, now," Eddie says in the dark. 

And there it is. The piece Steve was missing. Of course. 

Steve rolls onto his side, wrapping his arm around Eddie. Hugging him tight. 

"I'm sorry, honey, that must be weird." 

Eddie nods, and then tucks his head into his own chest, and cries. Steve can feel his back shaking with the movement.

Steve presses his face into Eddie's back, holding him. There's no fixing this kind of hurt. Steve knows. Eddie has to feel it. But Steve holds him tight, and Eddie lets him, leaning back against Steve's chest, seeking comfort. They've been that comfort for each other for years, a decade now, even if Steve gets it wrong sometimes. Still can't read Eddie's mind, as much as he'd like to, especially in times like these.

"I'm sorry I've been so weird," Eddie says, his voice thick.

"I love you," Steve tells him.

Eddie suddenly rolls in his arms, pressing his face into Steve's neck. Steve just hugs him tighter, rubbing his back. 

"I feel like I'm a little kid again, crying like this," Eddie says, and Steve presses his face into Eddie's hair.

"It's okay to cry," Steve tells him, because it is. It took Steve a long time to realize that, because crying wasn't okay growing up in the Harrington household. 

But as an adult? If he wants to cry. He'll fucking cry. Steve finds he always feels better after he's let it all out. 

"I know," Eddie says, "but it hurts today like it's fresh, and not decades old. I hate it."

Steve rubs his back, then pulls back, "Put on your shoes."

"What? Why?" Eddie asks, and Steve touches his arm, urging him on.

Twenty minutes later, Wayne is holding Eddie as he cries, and this is definitely what Eddie needed. Steve's absolutely sure. 

Eddie can't have his mom, but he still has Wayne. His dad, in all the ways that matter.

If you want to write your own, or see more entries for this challenge, pop on over to @steddieholidaydrabbles and follow along with the fun!

If you want to see more of my entries into this month-long challenge, you can check them out in my Steddie Holiday Drabbles tag, right here!

[walks-the-ages]

If I see one more post about "trump almost getting assassinated means its the end of the world he's guaranteed to win the election now" I'm going to scream.

First of all, stop doomposting. Get your head out of that mindset, and if you can't get out of that mindset, not filling your dash with doom will genuinely help.

Second of all, Trump was already almost guaranteed to win. If you're anywhere that is not on Tumblr, Biden's polling numbers are atrocious for individual states as well as nation-wide.

~60% of Americans disapprove of Biden.

~67% of Americans want Biden to step down and let another candidate run.

Instead of spending your time crying about how everyone needs to

"Vote for Biden, because even though he's actively commiting genocide right now, at least he promises that he will protect abortion rights and trans rights if he's elected into power for another four years!"

aka

"Vote for Hitler, because while he may not like other people, at least he promises to not take away the rights of Germans here in our country!"

Instead of supporting a genocide (voting for Biden, and trying to convince people to vote for him which is the opposite of beating a dead horse) and thinking the world is going to end if Trump gets elected, you should be

1) Research your other candidate options for November. It takes a single google search of "Presidential election candidates" and it'll come up with countless polls and articles about who all of the independent and third party candidates are.

2) Organizing within your local community, or at the very least, just. Get out there and get to know people. Get to know your neighbors, your cashiers at the local grocery store, join a local gardening Facebook group and start a small food garden, in the ground or in containers. Make some community connections, so if shit hits the fan, you have a local support network, and can help each other.

3) Listen to Palestinians. Listen to Indigenous people. Listen to Black activists. Listen to the marginalized groups who have been begging for years, decades, for people to see that there is no "Lesser Evil" if the side wearing blue hat continues to commit genocide, murders minorities, puts kids in cages, continues to put unlawful embargos on entire nations, and continues to commit war crimes and attempt to topple the governments of other nations.

Project 2025 has been the Republican plan for when they get elected for the last 40 years, they just so happen to have a fancy PDF to fear monger with this year.

The entire world is not going to end if Donald Trump gets elected, and if you truly do think it is, instead of attempting to convince people to vote for a man committing genocide that more than half the country disapproves of, how about you spend your energy on convincing BIDEN to halt all military aid to Israel and to use the troops HE stationed in Israel to actually give aid and prevent more war crimes?

Oh wait. He can't do that, he's already committed so many war crimes. they already dressed up as aid workers and slaughtered 300 innocent people for the "sake" of 2 hostages that Israel has refused all actual negotiations to return them, because Israel literally doesn't care about hostages, it just wants all of Gaza gone and under Israeli control.

You don't fucking bomb the place you think hostages are in, you don't go around slaughtering innocent people if you care about hostages, including slaughtering your own people you're supposedly there to rescue.

Biden literally said that if there were no Israel, America would have to invent its own. His opinion has not changed one bit, and you can see it every time he and his group call college students protesting genocide "outside actors", when he further militarizes the police so they can shoot, beat, and maim peaceful protestors. When he claims to have seen photographs of beheaded babies that don't exist and continues to spout claims long -debunked about October 7th.

"violence does not belong in our politics, but only when it doesn't involve me sadistically supporting crimes against humanity and genocide"

Anyways this post is long and rambling.

Tldr: stop acting like its the end of the world if Trump gets elected. Instead of screaming people need to vote for Genocide Joe, focus your attention on getting him to step down so another candidate can take his place in August. Look up third party candidates, and organize in your local community.

And, don't forget your daily clicks!

[shadowmaat]

NeverBidens

We're on a fast track to another Trump presidency. It was already going to be a dicey situation given his popularity among the white power groups, the antiqueer extremists, the misogynists, xenophobes, terrorist militias, and ultraconservative Christians.

Unfortunately, there's another equally large group throwing themselves in the mix. People who claim to be leftists, but whose beliefs align more with the alt-right than anything on the liberals side.

The NeverBidens use Biden's involvement with Israel over Palestine as a rallying cry to oust him. They're furious over the genocide taking place in Palestine and think the only way to "save" those people is to get rid of Biden.

"We need to send a message to Dems!" they claim. This has never worked in modern history, of course, and has led to an increase in suffering when attempts have been made, but that hardly matters. Whether it's refusing to vote at all or wasting a vote on a third party, their goal is the same as MAGA's: get Trump installed as president.

Why? Well, some of them say that Trump can "hardly be worse" than Biden, which shows a significant memory failure, if true. Others have flat-out stated that their goal is to destroy the US: burn it all down and start over from the ashes. This is, they claim, the only way to "fix" the country. I'm beginning to believe that this is what all of them want, no matter what excuses they make or lies they tell themselves.

Some of them may claim that no, this isn't about killing the US, it's about saving Palestinians, but if that were true they'd voting for the guy who is at least starting to waffle a bit rather than the guy who thinks Benji should "finish the job already."

The ones willing to admit they want the violent destruction of the US are also aware that this will lead to countless deaths, both in the US and across the world. It's a "necessary sacrifice" to achieve the "better world" they envision, and they're willing to throw all of us onto the pyre of their beliefs.

This is part of why I say that NeverBidens are a death cult: whether they're willing to admit it or not, they know a lot of innocent people are going to die, and they either want that or don't care as long as they "win." Many of them may not even care what comes next as long as the rest of us are punished: for allowing the country to get this bad, for voting Biden into office in the first place, for not managing to fix everything already.

Do the people calling for the death of the US honestly believe something better will take its place? Or do they just want the country to die and don't care what happens next? Hard to say. I'm sure some of them could probably outline grand plans for a better future, one where everyone is treated equally and nothing bad ever happens and all is wonderful and perfect, but that isn't the same as believing it's possible. And it isn't the same as being able to successfully implement those plans without any hiccups or dissent.

As an aside, I remember reading about a group of disenfranchised fic fans who decided they'd had enough of AO3's lenient content policies and decided to start up their own perfect archive: one where Immoral Content™ was forbidden and all the creepy perverts on AO3 wouldn't be allowed.

Which might have worked well if they had been able to agree on the specifics of the immoral content and where to draw the lines. Except, y'know, everyone has their own opinions on "immoral" and eventually the arguing got so bad that the project was abandoned.

Anyway! NeverBidens are a death cult. A lot of them get angry when you point that out. No, no, they don't want more people to die, they want the Palestinians to live! How, exactly, that's supposed to be accomplished with Trump as president remains vague and undefined. And even if, by some miracle, Trump suddenly decided to stop sending Israel money and weapons, A) I'm pretty sure Benji could continue to cause damage without us (we're his biggest supporter, not his only one), and B) what about the rest of the world? What about the genocides in Sudan, Ukraine, Afghanistan, etc? What about the hellscapes in the DR Congo? Haiti? Nigeria? Mass death and violence is happening in so many places across the world, not just Palestine.

While Palestine deserves to be recognized, so do all the other people who are suffering. And yeah, the US is going to get significantly worse under Trump, too. As is planned. As is desired by certain factions, including the NeverBidens. But hey, a little mass death, stripped rights, global suffering, and terrorism is better than letting Biden remain in office, right?

[arabian-batboy]

you do realize that jill stein basically is in with the russians and is in putin’s back pocket? she’s practically a russian asset. it’s so obvious that she doesn’t truly understand or cares about how the us political system works and opts to speak political misinformation. if she truly wants to be a good candidate she needs to start at the local governments rather than jumping into the presidential ballot every four years to basically steal votes? she’s just appropriating the current movements that would potentially give her some votes without an actual plan for anything. she’s “anti war” but takes money from lockheed martin? be so fr rn now.

what’s her plan for a ceasefire? a two party state does she understand how the government would come to that? she’s antivax and spreads conspiracy theories - one of the reasons why we even lost in 2016 is bc of people like you voting for her.

it’s unfortunate, believe me, that we even have a two party system. i hate it but that’s simply how the government works and there’s nothing we could do to change that right now, but if you’re voting for hee then you’re voting against women and the lgbt and poc in the us as well. if trump does end of winning this election bc of voters who vote third party, like how he won in 2016, the us is going to be so much worse than what we could possibly ever imagine. there’s so much at stake this election cycle it’s mind boggling.

if she really wanted to be president, she’d start at local elections and work her way up rather than just jumping onto certain states ballots every four years for the presidential election tbh.

You got proof that she receives millions of dollars from Russian lobbies? Because there's proof that Kamala, Biden and Hilary all received millions of dollars from Israeli lobbies in the form of AIPAC publicly announcing that they use lobbying money for them without any shame, they literally don't try to hide it. Yet I don't see you rushing in to call them or any other AIPAC's recipients an 'Israel's asset" or accuse them of being in Bibi's back-pocket......even though they are.

Here's a video of Stein's fundraiser director debunking her receiving money from Lockheed Martin: X

Trump was the first person to become a US's president without any political or military history, people thought it was just a joke when the funny old man from Celebrity Apprentice ran for office yet he won and there's a chance he will win again, so I don't see why holding any local government should be obligatory for 3rd party before jumping straight into the presidential ballot.

I already said everything I wanted to say about voting for 3rd party here X, frankly I have no interests on putting Stein on a pedestal or convincing others that she's a morally good person, all I care about is that she does the bare minimum of "doesn't unconditionally support a genocide against my people" and is the only 3rd party candidate who has any chance of winning, so that's more than enough for me.

But back to you, everything you said is so fucking narcissistic, telling people that are dying that its "simply how the government works and there’s nothing we could do to change that right now" must be easy for you to say because you're not the direct victim of the US's imperialism, but its not our fault that you're such a spineless complicit who believes the US simply can not exist without genocidal war-criminals running the government at all time and everyone who suffers from it should shut up and stop being an inconvenience because things will not change for them and instead they should put your needs and wants before their very lives.

Through-out human history many empires that were considered the strongest in the world came and went, the US empire isn't an exception and if it can't change from within then eventually it will be forcibly changed from the outside and its mostly likely the latter, since asking you to grow a conscious is asking for too much.

Also I just don't understand why you people talk about women, people of color and gay people as if they only exist in the US or that them living in the US while Republicans are in office is somehow worse than living in a country that is currently being bombed by the US? Democrats' bombs kills women, Democrats' bombs kills people of color, Democrats' bombs kills LGBT community, matter of fact Democrats' bombs kills as many people as Republican bombs do, so explain to me how things will be worse for women/PoC/LGBT exactly if the Republican win? Because Republican were in office from 2017 to 2021 and I didn't see minorities in the US being indiscriminately killed by the thousands in day-light without any repercussions for their murder, but they are being killed overseas, both by Republican and Democrats while you are here busy making up cartoonishly-evil scenarios about how the things that are happening to them will happen to you if people vote 3rd party and the Republicans win because of that.

Spoiler Alert: No it will not, you will continue living a safe peaceful life in a developed nation without having to fear 60,000 tons of bombs being dropped on you while you're hiding in a tent in a refugee camp or searching for food among rubble regardless of who wins, whether its the red, blue or green party. So at the very least vote for a 3rd party so that other people from other countries will enjoy the same privilege as you instead of making up ridiculous stories about how all of your human rights will be stripped away if the blue war-criminal wasn't in office so therefore those annoying victims of war should be quiet and not dare suggest the heinous crime of voting for a 3rd part.

[thrashkink-coven]

Okay my American friends.

First and foremost, I’m sorry. I’ve had my own dilemmas about the election, Harris, third party voting etc. It doesn’t matter anymore. Whether or not the 2PS could have ever worked is irrelevant now. It doesn’t. Your frustration should not be directed towards your peers, as frustrating as it is, pay attention. Your enemy is the United States of America. It always has been. Fascism won again, because America is a fascist empire built on the backs of slaves, drugs and war. Do not be surprised, do not even be disappointed. These are the values that this country has upheld since it’s inception, the veil is only being abandoned in place of unashamed pride. You were always in danger. Your friends were always in danger. There are no more illusions. This has happened before and it will happen again.

The work is still the same. The fight has never changed. I’ve been going on for a while on this page about how urgently and passionately you need to be community organizing. Contributing to your local police abolition groups, having radical compassion for the people in your community and decreasing your reliance on the system. There is no more time for hesitation or doubt. You should never put your faith in the political system that seeks to oppress all those it can exploit. Put your trust in people, real people, the ones you see and love every day. Keep fighting, and if this is the first time you’ve ever felt like fighting, listen to your intuition.

I mean it, today, go outside and see what you can do. Talk to the homeless people on your block and find out what they need. Be there for your trans friends, commit yourself to being a true ally of humanity. Learn to make clothes so you can make binders for your friends. Learn to make food, allocate resources. Start a commune. Keep each other warm. Reach out to people and come up with a plan. Plan, please plan, and strategize. It is the people, and always the people, who have freed themselves from bondage. It is the people who liberate themselves. Learn how to feed, clothe, and shelter yourself and the people you love. And I know most of you are just kids who think there’s nothing you can do, but your voice has power. Continue to write and make music, continue to talk to each other and inspire each other to build and resist. I know that’s a whole lot of bla bla bla to people who don’t know where to start, but most importantly, please, do not give up. Do not allow these people to convince you that you don’t have power. We’ve been through so much worse, we have survived and we always will. There is no losing, you haven’t lost. Keep fighting. Know in your heart that there is always something.

Death to the empire now, then, and forever. Revolution now and forever. All Power to the all the people.

You’re going to be okay.

[rjalker]

hi i saw your post for americans about how they should vote coming up and i just wanna say im really sorry so many people are being such dicks to you about it. this year will be my very first presidential election that i can vote in and i am so scared to go down to the polls in november because i know its just going to be a shitshow. you said voting blue is bad and we shouldnt do that because the blue candidates would just continue the genocide, but voting red would be much much worse because trump has promised to be MUCH more supportive of israel’s disgusting actions in palestine as well as promises to strip millions of minority americans of their basic rights and protections. so obviously voting red is just as bad but were not supposed to not vote because thats basically just another trump vote. i am completely at a loss for what to do this election because everywhere i look people are saying ‘if you vote for x youre evil’ ‘if you vote for y youre a genocide supporter’ ‘if you vote for z youre basically human garbage’ theres quite literally 0 good options and everyone in the us knows that voting third party is just throwing away your vote

so like what should i do? cant not vote, cant vote blue, cant vote red, and cant vote third party, which doesnt leave a whole lot of options for what i CAN vote for without hundreds of people telling me i suck and should like go die

anyways really sorry for the long rambly kindof negative ask, this was typed out pretty quick im sorry if the tone is weird im genuinely looking for advice and you seem to know a bit about politics. i hope you have a beautiful day ❤️🍉

To get this part out of the way first, yes, you Can "just not vote"

Please read the entire article. Refusing to vote is the most basic form of protest for this entire system. There are quotes in that article going as far back as 1905 from indigenous people talking about this.

It's around 5,000 words long so set aside some time to read it.

Second of all, yes, you can vote third party.

Democrats and Republicans are equally as evil, but right now the Democrats are the ones literally comitting genocide and putting all their effort and money into doing so. Voting for them is explicitly telling them, and any other politicians who will ever exist, that genocide will win them support, so they should keep doing it.

Rewarding people for comitting genocide will of course lead to more genocide. And considering this is the most public genocide in the entire history of the world, can you imagine how much worse it will get if we tell these people that we're happy with them when they do this?

trump has promised to be Much more supportive of israel’s disgusting actions in Palestine as well as promises to strip millions of minority americans of their basic rights and protections.

I will just keep saying what minorities have been saying for forever: Trump may have promised to do these things, but the Democrats also plan to do them, they just don't tell you about it ahead of time. They, in fact, promise the opposite.

Biden has put more kids in cages at the border than Trump did. Biden denied Covid19 harder than Trump did and removed all protections and systems of support for it.

Biden has given more money and weapons to cops:

Specifically, the Plan calls on Congress to appropriate $10.877 billion in mandatory funding over five years for the COPS Hiring Program, which, combined with the President’s discretionary funding proposal for this program, will fully fund this goal with $12.817 billion in total. These funds will be used to get officers out of their stations and squad cars and into the community, walking the beat on foot patrols that have been shown to enhance officer morale, improve community relations, and have a deterrent effect on crime.

from the literal official White House fact sheet.

This allowed, and encouraged, the cold-blooded murder of Sonya Massey, and countless other victims of police brutality and outright murder.

The Democrats will do every single thing the Republicans tell you they're going to do, but the Democrats expect you to thank them when they put their boot on your throat and then kick you while you're down.

Biden and even Obama could have protected Roe V Wade to ensure abortion rights, but both refused to do so, because they don't actually want half the population of this country to have the right of basic bodily autonomy. Joe Biden is a Catholic. He hates abortion just as much as any Republican, but he pretends otherwise when he needs people to vote for him, which is what any Democrat is going to do.

The people who are okay with genocide will keep telling you you're a horrible person if you vote third party or withhold your vote, but I cannot stress enough how little you should care about their opinions. They will tell actual Palestinians that they're "the real racist" if they refuse to reward Joe Biden, or now, Kamala Harris, for murdering their families. They will tell actual Queer people that we "just hate Queer people" if we refuse to reward people for comitting genocide.

They will pull out every stop they can think of to make you feel guilty for refusing to support genocide.

It doesn't mean you're not doing the right thing. These people will even outright admit that they would have voted for Hitler. And they will try to shame and harass you into doing the same.

If you want to help people, and not just the privileged white Americans who insist that we all must support genocide to protect their feelings of security, then you can vote for whichever "third" party (which is an oxymoron because there's literally more than one of them but whatever) appeals to you the most, or just withhold your vote entirely.

And if someone tells you that "only privileged bigots withhold their vote", just share the article above and tell them to read it. Indigenous people have been doing this longer than either of us have been alive. They know what they're doing, and that article is just one essay. There are more. Going back to 1905 and earlier.

If you do something as simple as hand a homeless person $10, you are doing more to help minorities in this country than a thousand votes for Democrats or Republicans ever will. Donating to verified relief funds for Palestinians does more to help than any number of votes for Democrats or Republicans ever will.

Voting is not the most important thing you can do to help anyone. The only people who want you to believe that are the people who claimed they would "push Biden Left", and "hold him accountable", but all they've done is follow him into complete fascism with a smile.

The Democratic Party supports genocide. They threw out all pretense of being "the good guys" when they censured Rashida Tlaib for calling for an end to the genocide and an end to the colonization of Palestine. (And note: The genocide and colonization are the exact same thing. They are inseparable. You cannot have colonization without genocide.), and because they continue to push to send more weapons to Israel when doing so is literally, explicitly supporting genocide and allowing it to happen.

Joe Biden got up in front of all of these people on June 5th, 1986, and said that if Israel didn't exist, they'd have to invent one. Because it is a direct extension of American's colonization and oppression.

Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans regret any of the genocides or slavery that founded this country. They are pouring as much energy as they can, right now, into making sure that more happen. If they could go back in time, they would be leading the charge to massacre and enslave indigenous people themselves.

There are many things you can do to help people if you genuinely want to do what's best for everyone and not just what privileged white Americans think will benefit them.

Voting for either Democrats or Republicans will help no one but millionaire and billionaire white supremacists, whether they're actually white or not. Kamala Harris is just as complicit in white supremacy and genocide as any of her old white man accomplices.

You can withhold your vote entirely, as many indigenous people have been doing since they were given the "right" (I cannot stress enough how much you need to read the first article I linked) to vote.

You can vote for whichever third party appeals to you the most.

You can share verified Palestinian relief funds. You can click once a day to help minorities all over the world. You can donate whatever money you can spare to Palestinians and other minorities mutual aid funds. You can give your pocket change to homeless people. You can treat them like people.

Anything you do to help the people in your immediate area, or overseas, or wherever you are able, will do more to help minorities than anything the Democrats or Republicans will ever do. If you can't afford to donate, you can share people's mutual aid requests anyways.

Here's a protest in Washington DC that's live on youtube as I'm pasting it in here. Literally just watching this will do more to help than Democrats or Republicans ever will.

Edit: 1:48PM: The live protest continues here.

Edit: 3:36: Both livestreams are over now, but you can still watch them.

Anyone who tells you that voting is the only, or the most crucial, or the most urgent thing you can possibly do are lying to you. They do not want to help anyone, no matter how much they claim to. Most of them will not even aknowledge the genocides going on, and if they do, it's only to say, with a fake tear, that some things are just inevitable, and it's better for Palestinians to die than them.

Vote third party or withold you vote. Share posts and essays written by Palestinians and other indigenous people. Do whatever you're able to to help your local community. Look for places you can volunteer, libraries, community gardens, anything you can think of.

None of us are free until all of us are free. Palestinians and other minorities around the world do not exist to be sacrificed for the sake of privileged white Americans, no matter what those privileged white Americans try to tell you.

They will harass you and try to guilt trip you into supporting genocide. They will pretend that you're "the real racist" for refusing to sign off on the murder of Black and brown people the entire world over, including in America.

They are wrong. These people are not your allies, or the allies of anyone in this world who is oppressed and cares about other oppressed people.

If you want to help Palestinians and minorities everywhere in the world, including in American, then either withhold your vote, or vote for whichever third party most aligns with what you want to see in the world.

Do not give in to the idea that supporting genocide by voting for the Democrats will magically lead to a world without genocide.

Trump will not be "worse" for anyone who's been suffering under this system since day 1. The only difference between Trump and the Democrats is that Trump tells you what he wants to do, and the Democrats lie through their teeth while doing the exact same thing.

The Democratic and Republican parties pretend to be two separate factions, because this allows them both to maintain shared control of this government and this country. This is why people are so rabid about telling you that "voting third party is a vote for the bad guy", when by that logic, voting third party equally supports both Republicans and Democrats.

Listen to Palestinians. Listen to indigenous people. Listen to the minorities who actually care about other oppressed people. Try to ignore the white supremacists who will scream at you that you must support genocide in order to protect them.

[theglitchywriterboi]

I know you want to put the blame on someone. I know you want to blame someone who will see & who will CARE. But the fact of the matter is in a lot of the states Kamala lost in there was no winning even if you added up all the third party voters & gave them to her. Not to mention, a lot of them wouldn't have even voted for her if the option was her or trump [by that I mean physically on the ballot they were the only two, no write ins or other parties allowed]. Like RFK Jr. & his supporters ? Def a Trump pick for them if given that option. Same w/ a few other parties.

She explains my views well: [Link btw]

Nows not the time to argue w/ who progressives & leftists voted for & whether or not it's their fault, nows the time to build community, organize, & plan.

Talk to everyone you can, if you've never organized do research as to how, if you're already doing that & experienced, help newbies & keep doing what you're doing.

And while now I don't think is the time [personally, if you disagree you do you] a lot of leftists need to accept the fact that change comes w/ educating people. & not just apolitical libs who will take a couple months MAX to bring further left. That means Republicans - both Trumpers & ones that disagree w/ him. That means neolibs. Obviously do what YOU can, I realize it's not safe for everyone to be like "Communism is the way !!!" But do what you can & take baby steps.

Also there's other better resources out there but if you're going to protest remember:

1: Cover all tattoos

2: Mask up [because covids not over plus anonymity is good]

3: Turn off biometrics [finger scan/face scan to get into phone] & make a password

4: If you're stopped by a cop don't say shit don't tell them what you ate for breakfast, if you're detained/arrested explicitly ask for a lawyer & tell them you refuse to speak w/o legal counsel present. [ACLU resources on how to handle being stopped, they explain this advice better.] Also when I say don't tell them what you ate I literally mean that, cause sometimes cops will ask unrelated questions to A: Trip you up & catch you in a potential lie [or frame it that way] &/or B: To ease you into the convo so they can ask the questions you know not to answer/don't wanna answer

Fighting isn't over.

[yesbothways]

My straight-ticket Republican side of my family has a saying that they taught me growing up, "A third party vote is a vote for the other side." Because of that, I will make even a purely defensive vote. I am seeing a lot of folks (or bots or propagandists, who knows) talking about not voting for Biden or Democrats this year after doing so in 2016 out of political outrage. I am seeing the opposite of this energy in the conservative communities that I come from. Those folks have constantly reaffirmed and deepened their beliefs and commitments over the last 4 years. And they are feeling rested now and have the self-righteous energy of seeing themselves as embattled underdogs. In 2016, low voter turnout caused the outcome. In 2020, conservative voter turnout was exceptionally high. I see all the same signs I saw back then. Liberal media acts like Trump has lost voters to try to make it happen, and those folks were never listening to them. These sort of political strategies this BBC article focuses on to unfuck the Supreme Court only become viable if voters respond to how insane things are by voting in increasingly progressive Democrats and then keeping strong political pressure on them when they have the actual chance to make changes. There are ways for the office of the President, the Senate, and Congress to fundamentally reestablish checks and balances. I think it's insane we have to make this choice a second time, but we can keep possibilities in tact and get to real breakthroughs. These choices are not the same just because neither of them are the choices we should have. So many people do not vote in the USA that voter turnout or lack of turnout changes outcomes. This particular year, if you are not voting, you are holding the door open for a highly strategic, organized, energized far right. Project 2025 lays out ambitious plans I have heard reasonably compared to Reaganomics. It's very hard to see how policy changes create the conditions where you cannot pay off student loans or hold onto enough energy to keep your closest relationships strong enough not to feel lonely, where you cannot figure out how to get decent healthcare and can see no future. When my dad was 25, we had the most equitable distribution of wealth in US history, and when I was the same age, it was the most inequitable, a total reversal that has only deepened from there. This plan will make changes on that scale happen.

[mrultra100]

Quick lil' note to bring up before Pride Month

Just because Trump has been finally found guilty due to his hush-money felon, that doesn't mean he's fully out of the game entirely. While he himself can't vote, he's still gonna run for the elections this fall.

As brought up by @headspace-hotel, along with a post made by @dappercritter, Trump plans to do alot of awful things with his Project 2025 thing should he somehow win. That includes things like taking away the rights of the LGBQ+ community, women, blacks, etc, revert alot of environmental treaties and the like, get rid of abortion and have force women who are r@ped to have their r@pists' babies, resume the use of nuclear weapons, and other horrible things. This'll affect other countries on a negative scale too.

Now, regarding the people who are mad at Biden for siding with literal terrorists on a genocide, I know you are all upset by this, but keep this in mind.

Trump not only wants to endorse Israel, but also wants them to "finish the job". And that goes for any and all Republicans that side with him.

I know it all sucks with Biden, but given that we all have a few months left before the elections. let me make a few things clear.

I do not support Biden in any way. He, however, is our only opition that doesn't result in fascism taking over our country. As unfortunate as it sounds, this is the reality of it all

Again, Trump and the far right wants to support Israel with their ongoing genocide with twice the spite

A third party isn't really gonna help much for those who don't wanna vote for both Trump or Biden

Calling Biden out on his actions and not voting for Trump are two things that can and should coexist.

I have plenty of friends in the LGBQ+ community that I don't wanna see harmed by Project 2025

Does it suck that we're in a lesser of two evils situation? Yes, it most certainly does. But I'm begging you all

PLEASE VOTE FOR BLUE AND SHARE THIS AROUND.

If we want the good things in the country for years to come, along with a chance to continue with helping Palestine, please vote for Biden. He's a bad president, but only voting for him just to keep Trump and his ghouls out is a very valid reason to do so if you wanna keep not only America, but also the world at large from falling into a even worse hellhole than what we're in now. Nobody ever said that this game was fair, but you still have the power to help prevent the overgrown Oompa Loompa and his cronies from ever getting back into office. For those who want to help keep Pride. Month a thing and to help keep the LGBQ+ community here in the states safe, y’all need to grit your teeth and pick Biden. It’ll basically be the end of America as we know it if Trump wins again.

Fuck Trump.

Fuck MAGA.

Fuck Israel.

Fuck fascism.

Please spread this around to help stop Project 2025 from happening. Palestine still matters, but so does everyone in the U.S. and other place being harmed. With your support, we can finally have a chance to be done with this rotten Cheeto and his cult for good.